Why Should Businesses Take Money For Services Not Used?

Is it fair that businesses take money for services not used? I certainly don’t think so.

There are some products and services we buy that are offered on the basis that when we buy again we can ‘save money’ if we haven’t been costly to the company in the previous year.

I’m thinking of things like the no claims bonus that car insurance companies offer.

I’ve recently noticed too for example that Bupa private health insurance now have a Bupa Low Claims Bonus. This is described as ‘a new and personalised way of calculating the cost of your annual subscription’ which basically takes into account whether you’ve made any claims in the last period and if so how costly these were. If you’ve been costly your renewal subscription will rise more than if you haven’t.

Businesses are being urged to be fairer to customers and stop taking money for services they never use.

I agree with consumer champion Jasmine Birtles who is calling on firms selling services such as motor breakdown cover, health insurance or central heating and boiler care to reimburse customers who don’t end up using their services even though they’ve paid for them.

Rather than sitting on these profits she believes companies should be giving some of the money back to their customers. According to recent research she is not alone in this belief either – some 80% of consumers would like to see companies rewarding them if they don’t use a product or service.

Jasmine, who runs the Moneymagpie financial advice site, says if businesses were to follow this advice, they might even see a financial benefit themselves, with 81% of people saying they would choose a product offering cash back over one that didn’t.

In our podcast, Jasmine and Richard Frost from npower discuss this revolutionary idea.

As you will hear on the podcast, npower already have their hometeam 50 product which offers 50% no call out cash back for npower customers. Great to see a company championing the way. Are there others you know of that you share with our readers?

About The Author

Diane

With the background of a long standing career at senior level within the insurance industry, I've been writing articles on personal finance matters for MoneyHighStreet since we started it in 2006.
As a family of 4, plus a wonderful labrador, our main goal is really to enjoy life, to have fun!
To achieve our goal, like it or not, we need to really get the most from our money. I enjoy sharing how we tackle this.